(MENAFN- Detained in Dubai) 20 October 2021

Dubai's long anticipated expo is finally in full swing, but so is the worldwide media in highlighting human rights abuses and even boycotting the expo.
“The United Arab Emirates is going to be pumping roughly £11 billion into the UK over the next five years through the Sovereign Investment Partnership”, Radha Stirling explains, “That’s not charity, it is investment from which the UAE expects significant returns; the Emirates is buying a share in the UK’s infrastructure, technology, life sciences, and energy sectors, and we should have no illusions about what that means or about what perks the UAE is expecting as new co-owners of some of our most vital economic interests.”
“Don’t support Dubai Expo”, warn British investors

Escalating diplomatic efforts for Brit detained in Dubai British investors have warned businesses and investors to avoid Dubai Expo over human rights concerns. - Khater Massaad warns investors: Sheikh uses 'forced confessions' to seize assets abroad “It is impossible for investment ambassadors to promote the UAE without criticism, while there are very serious incidences of human rights abuses against foreign nationals, especially investors, in Dubai”, said Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Duba



Stirling is the CEO and founder of advocacy group Detained in Dubai and Due Process International, both organisations that confront legal abuses in the UAE and around the world. “A disproportionate number of the cases we deal with involve British expats and investors defrauded, extorted, robbed, and abused by Emirati partners who view their enterprises as disposable resources and foreigners as powerless targets of exploitation,” she warns, “The UAE has a culture in which the rights of locals are unalienable but the rights of others are commodities that can be bought and sold. The deepening economic ties between the UK and the UAE should raise serious alarm bells for anyone concerned about the safety and human rights of British citizens, whether they are in the UAE or in Britain.”
Baroness and MP call for increased travel warnings to UAE and Sanctions

Baroness Janet Whitaker and Andy Slaughter, MP have called on Rt Hon. Dominic Raab, MP to increase FCO travel warnings to the UAE, as well as open discussions on possible sanctions after British National, Albert Douglas, was arrested and subjected to human rights violations in UAE prison. Lady Whitaker and Mr Slaughter released a letter requesting the urgent diplomatic assistance of Secretary of State, Rt Hon Dominic Raab, MP. They have asked him to speak with his counterpart in the UAE to brin



As the Dubai Expo gets underway in the UAE, the country’s human rights record has come under renewed scrutiny, with the European Parliament calling for the event to be boycotted. “Most human rights organisations point to the UAE’s dreadful mistreatment of workers, particularly manual labour, and the country’s severe persecution of activists, censorship and intimidation of journalists, and the utter lack of freedom of expression,” Stirling says, “All of these are grave issues that need to be addressed; but our work exposes us to the dire state of the UAE’s legal system as a whole and the horrific experiences of foreign nationals; tourists, professionals, and investors; whose lives are destroyed on a daily basis by a system that is brutally biased and indifferent to the rule of law. It is a system that tortures, fabricates evidence, forces confessions, and threatens detainees’ families and loved ones. The Dubai Expo aims to lure more and more business people and investors to the UAE, all of whom are potential victims.”
Torture in the Emirates

Lady Whitaker and Andy Slaughter, MP have voiced their serious concerns to the Foreign Office over the UAE’s treatment of British grandfather, Albert Douglas. In fact, they’ve even suggested sanctions may be needed to protect UK citizens abroad. “This is not the first time and it’s appalling that we are back here again”, said Radha Stirling, founder of Detained in Dubai, who has been working with the British government to help Albert. “Dominic Raab, MP, the UK’s former Foreign Minister, public



Two of Stirling’s current clients, Albert Douglas and Billy Hood, both British citizens being wrongfully detained in the UAE, have generated massive public outrage in the UK about the Emirates’ belligerence towards Britons. “When the UK unveiled their pavilion at the Dubai Expo in September, Billy Hood had already been detained for 9 months over a friend’s bottles of CBD oil, and he is now facing a sentence of 25 years,” Radha says, “Shortly after Albert Douglas was arrested in the UAE in February, the UK accepted £800 million from the Emirates for life science projects was was promised £10b investment into the private sector. Albert has been severely beaten, denied medication, and subjected to unimaginable psychological trauma; all because his son’s business failed; meanwhile, the UK keeps receiving money from the UAE and further entrenching the co-dependent ties between the two countries. At a certain point, we have to recognise that Dubai is not only purchasing a share in our economy, they are buying impunity.
Prisoner warns Billy Hood's family “Britain won’t help you”

The question on most families' minds when a loved one is arrested in the Middle East is “will the British foreign office help us?” Prisoner Albert Douglas has passed a message to Billy’s family from Dubai prison in a telephone call today, “The FCDO has consistently let me down after I was beaten by prison guards. They have lied to my family and told them repeatedly that I had my heart medication when I didn’t. They have told us again and again that they can’t do anything. The truth is, they just


Open Letter: Consular officials slammed in letter to MP over Albert Douglas' detention in Dubai

Albert Douglas's son, Wolfgang, has sent hundreds of letters to Ambassadors, Consular officials and MP's to raise his father's devastating abuse. This open letter describes some of the horrific treatment the family has received from the British and UAE government. Dear Jack, It really is a travesty of justice Jack. I have countless (more the 100+ emails) that are all similar in nature with repeated contradictions by the FCO, some knowingly in contradiction of basic facts and some of them contra


“How many British and foreign attendees at the Dubai Expo, assured by the participation of the UK, will be encouraged to invest today, only to find themselves falsely prosecuted tomorrow, convicted by a corrupt system, robbed of their capital, dispossessed of their businesses, jailed, abused and tortured in police custody, or maliciously pursued as fugitives by UAE-requested Interpol Red Notices at the behest of Emirati partners they met at the Expo?”
European Parliament votes to boycott UAE Expo due to human rights issues

Our organisation has consistently highlighted the systematic human rights abuses of the United Arab Emirates for more than a decade. The UAE is a country in which due process and the rule of law are non-existent, torture is routine, forced confessions are the norm, persecution of women, minorities, academics and journalists is standard procedure. We have actively lobbied governments in Europe, the UK, Australia, Canada, and America to start holding the UAE accountable for its rampant violations


Stirling cautions that the UK government is neglecting the safety of its citizens by continuing to enable the UAE to present itself as a modern, Westernised destination for tourism and investment; and that deepening British economic reliance on Emirati support puts Britons at risk. “It is clear,” she says, “UAE investment in the UK is a power play by which the Emirates believes they are purchasing a license to prey upon British business people in the UAE, and to violate the rights of expats. These economic ties are not instilling greater respect for our citizens in the UAE, they are not increasing their security, they are not ensuring their protection; quite the opposite. The more influence the UAE enjoys within Great Britain, the less safe our citizens are in the UAE; and the more the UAE becomes a partner in our economy, the more we can anticipate on a national level the same type of exploitation and abuse so many of our clients have suffered on an individual at the hands of their own Emirati business partners.”